Trip Reports - Riding the Rocky Rails : Luxury trip through the Canadian Rockies

My wife and I just returned from a weeklong trip to the Canadian Rockies on the Rocky Mountaineer train. I had been planning on attending a open source development meeting in Edmonton in late May and my wife had been wanting to take a luxury train trip for some time. When the Canadian dollar depreciated earlier this year we decided to combine the two and take the Rocky Mountaineer Gold Leaf train from Vancouver to Banff.

The Rocky Mountaineer is a special tourist train that goes from Vancouver to Banff/Calgary or Jasper, it makes the run over two days, passengers spend the night in hotels in Kamloops. Since the train runs during the day only there are no cabins. There are two classes of service, Red Leaf and Gold Leaf. After getting off the train we would then spend a few days exploring the Banff and Lake Louise area before she flew home from Calgary and I would head up to Edmonton. Also about this time the Fairmont FAF rates became available, which I jumped on immediately and booked the Fairmonts in Vancouver, Banff, Lake Louise and Calgary. First class all the way!

I guess bookings have been down on the Rocky Mountaineer train; literally a week after I had booked our tickets they came out with an offer of a free night at the Fairmont Vancouver and a free day return on the Whistler Mountaineer. We had already paid though and within the cancellation period so we weren't able to get this extra bonus. :( The Rocky Mountaineer company offers multi-day tours in combination with the train, or you can just buy the two-day train trip individually. We opted for this as we could choose our own hotels and go at our own pace; we're not very interested in tours.

Award tickets have been difficult to get out of Austin recently; and especially over the Memorial day holiday weekend. Nothing desirable was available on Delta or American so my mom was able to book our award flights out of San Antonio on United using her USAir miles; open-jaw flights into Vancouver and out of Edmonton/Calgary.

pictures are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hauteboy/sets/72157619394370849/

May22
Hotel: Courtyard San Antonio Airport, $89
San Antonio airport is only 1h15 from our house, but since our flight was at 6AM, that meant we either had to leave the house at 3AM and risk a flat tire, etc. or head down the night before and get a nights sleep so that we would be refreshed for Vancouver the next day. I found a great park and fly deal for $89 at the Courtyard San Antonio; considering parking at the airport for the 8 days would have been $50. It would also count as a hotel partner toward the Delta 25k partners promo. :D

As it was we got a late start out of Austin; my wife had to work until 9PM and it was almost midnight by the time we finally started driving for San Antonio, so much for the good night's sleep! We arrived at the Courtyard around 1:30 AM then fell into bed, only to be woken up about 3 hrs later for the shuttle. The hotel was in a good location just a few blocks from the airport.

May23
Flight: San Antonio (SAT) to Denver (DEN), United Airlines 7073, Economy
Flight: Denver (DEN) to Vancouver (YVR), United Airlines 629, Economy
Hotel: Fairmont Waterfront (http://www.fairmont.com/Waterfront)
We caught the early shuttle from the hotel to the airport around 4:30. I had already checked in online the night before; this was the first time I'd flown as non-status on an airline since they've added the 1st bag fees (:td:) and we had to pay $15 apiece for our backpacks. Normally I'll carry mine on but I had two big bottles of bugspray/suntan lotion that wouldn't have made it in the Kippie bag. Today the line at security was pretty short; the last time I flew UA out of San Antonio was right after graduation in 2008 and the line was huge!

We grabbed a quick breakfast before boarding the United CRJ flight to Denver; I fell asleep as soon as we sat down so the flight passed quickly. We arrived in Denver way at the far end of the CRJ B-gates then hoofed it down to the center hub. Our flight arrived 20 mins early which left us over an hour to wait for our next flight to Vancouver. That flight left on time as well and soon we were approaching Vancouver in gorgeous clear weather; I was able to see Point Roberts, WA (a cartographical oddity, it an exclave of the US and shares a land border with Canada). We also arrived early here at 10:06AM, but then had to wait nearly an hour for our bags to come out on the belt! We caught the YVR Airporter bus ($14); takes about 20-30 minutes and stops at several downtown hotels including the Fairmonts. This was our first time to Vancouver and we loved all the cute cottages and gardens along Granville St.

We arrived at the Fairmont Waterfront right at noon; the place was packed with cruise ship passengers and luggage. The hotel is right across from the convention center and cruise ship pier. Our room wasn't ready yet (and they said it wouldn't be ready until 3PM!) so we dumped our bags with the bell captain. The lobby at the hotel was very nice, light and airy. The Waterfront is a new hotel, unlike the original chateau-style Fairmont Vancouver a few blocks away. We asked the concierge if there was a nearby dimsum restaurant, she recommended the Imperial. Some of the best dimsum we've ever had! Well, at least the best outside of San Fran and Hong Kong. We came back to the hotel and sat around awhile before finally our room was available; we had been 'upgraded' to a huge high-floor corner city view. Very soft king-sized bed and flatscreen TV. We could see the convention center and cruise ships below from our bathroom window. I had signed up for the FPC program and was able to use the free in-room internet.

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Fairmont Waterfront room

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Imperial Restaurant dimsum

We had a bit of a nap before heading out again, this time to Gastown to see the steam clock. From there we caught a cab over to Stanley Park and the totem pole display. It was already late afternoon by now; the cruise ships were setting off under the bridge on their way up to Alaska. We had made reservations at Tojo's (http://www.tojos.com) for sushi dinner at 8:30PM, we had a few hours to kill so we walked slowly along the seawall back into town before catching a cab to the restaurant. Tojo's offers an omakase experience; you tell the waiter if you have any food allergies and how much you want to pay, and they bring you 4-6 different courses prepared especially by the chef. We opted for a 6-course and a 4-course to try the different offerings (Just the 6 course alone would have been plenty, we left stuffed!!!) The courses started arriving and the sake started flowing; Dungeness crabmeat salad served in the shell, seared tuna, sablefish soup, halibut cheek... as well as two plates of ngiri sushi. We had to be rolled out the door! Back to the hotel and an early night as we had to be up early the next morning to catch the train.

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Crab Salad & Tojo's

May24
Train: Vancouver to Kamloops, Rocky Mountaineer Gold Leaf
Hotel: Kamloops Towne Lodge (http://www.kamloopstownelodge.ca/)
We had asked if we could get on the bus shuttle to the train station as many people on the train were also staying at the Fairmont. They wanted $20 apiece though so we decided to catch a cab instead. The bright orange Prius cab only took a few minutes to get to the Rocky Mountaineer station (they have their own station separate from the CPR passenger terminal) through the deserted Sunday morning streets. We hadn't had time to grab breakfast and had hoped there was something to eat at the station, unfortunately they only had coffee. There are separate checkin lines for Gold Leaf and Red Leaf passengers; the Gold Leaf one seemed to take forever with only a few people ahead of us. Checkin was easy; they took our bags and tagged them with the destination. The station didn't seem to be too busy but then the tour buses started arriving.

We finally boarded the train around 7:30. It turns out our seats were in the last Calgary/Banff car, on the right hand side. The train splits up in Kamloops where the other half of the train goes to Jasper. The Gold Leaf cars are double decker and have a glass dome ceiling for viewing the scenery, the dining area is below. Most of the other passengers in the Gold Leaf car were on different tours. The seats are light gold in color, cloth and leather. I have wide shoulders though so to me the seats still seemed a bit narrow. The cabin attendents Brad and Larissa introduced themselves then offered everyone an introductory mimosa. We soon set off, traveling through the suburbs of Vancouver before crossing the Fraser river. Breakfast and Lunch are served in two seatings; the first day the back half of the car eats first, on the 2nd day the front half of the car is seated first. We were in the front half so had to wait awhile longer for breakfast; luckily they had a fruit bowl onboard to temporarily stave off our hunger.

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Gold Leaf car

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Eggs Benedict

Finally around 10AM it was time to eat. There were several choices for breakfast; croissants, eggs benedict with Canadian bacon, pancakes, or scrambled eggs with salmon and caviar. The train continued on through the lush green Fraser river valley, the mountains getting ever closer. The sky was gorgeous clear and we could see all the way to Mt. Baker in Washington state. We entered the Fraser canyon, heading towards Hells Gate, the narrowest part of the canyon just over 100 feet wide. The Canadian Pacific and Canadian Northern railways run on opposite sides of the canyon; one is used for eastbound and the other for westbound rail traffic. The terrain started getting drier here in the rain shadow of the mountains. For lunch, we had a choice of:


Aged Triple "A" Alberta Top Sirloin
With roasted nugget potatoes, balsamic demi glace
& flakes of blue cheese.
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Black Tiger Prawns
Simmered in a west coast bouillabaise broth,
over a sticky rice cake topped with sauteed vegetables julienne.

Fraser Valley Chicken Breast
Encrusted with wild BC mushrooms, panseared,
served with garlic mashed potatoes & a blueberry relish.
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Vegetarian Appeal
Traditional penne pasta tossed in garlic parsley olive oil
& asparagus over a rich tomato sauce.

Light Choice
Fresh vegetables layered with wonton crisps,
balsamic vinegar molasses, garlic & herb coulis.

We soon left the Fraser river and started climbing up the Thompson river canyon.. the two rivers are different colors and you can just catch a glimpse of the two colors mixing. The Thompson canyon was definitely much drier with scree slopes and avalanche sheds protecting the rail lines on both sides. The Trans-Canada Highway follows the rail line for most of the canyon. The river has several world class rapids but it was a bit early yet for rafting season. It's best to have a seat on the left side of the train for this section if headed eastbound. We finally approached the Kamloops lake, a huge lake on the Thompson river. Very few boats but mirror smooth reflecting the blue sky.

We arrived in Kamloops just after 5PM; they already had our hotel room keys for us as we got off the train. The town was bigger than I expected; it's a crossroads of road, river and rail and an important transportation hub. Kamloops means 'the meeting of the waters', where the North and South Thompson rivers join. The train coming through must eat up a good number of the hotel rooms in town! We caught the shuttlebus to our hotel (Kamloops Towne Lodge), where our bags were already waiting (they bus them in from Vancouver; only 5 hrs by road but all day by rail). The night in the hotel and dinner are included in the train fare. They put on a show at night for the train passengers, Rhythm of the Rails.. it's not included though and at $50 apiece didn't sound too appealing. The hotel was nice enough, a bit of an older hotel with a huge inner atrium. The room had a huge flatscreen TV. For those interested in points there was a Hampton Inn just across the street and a Sheraton Four Points nearby. The next day the shuttlebuses were arriving at 6:15AM so we called it an early night.

..cont..

This brought back some nice memories ^

We did this trip in 2007 in GoldLeaf from Jasper to Vancouver as part of a longer tour of Western Canada, and can truly see it was one of our best holidays! We too stayed at the Fairmont Waterfront Vancouver and enjoyed it greatly.

May 25
Train: Kamloops to Banff, Rocky Mountaineer Gold Leaf
Hotel: Fairmont Banff Springs
A long day in store today, 12 hours on the train from Kamloops to Banff. The shuttlebuses showed up at 6:15 to pick up everyone from the hotels. We left our bags in the room, they would be picked up and delivered to our hotel in Banff tonight. Our driver today was quite a character; instead of taking the highway to the train station he took us on a tour through town, down the 'Marigold Mile' and telling jokes all the way. The agents at the station had radioed him to find out where we were.

The train left on time this morning at 7AM.. ours was the last car today as the other cars would be heading to Jasper. That meant we would get a clear view back down the tracks from the vestibule at the end of the car. The Rocky Mountaineer newspaper is provided at every seat; this gives a detail of the route sections and history on the building of the Canadian railway through the Rockies. The route today left Kamloops, crossing over Notch Hill, down to Salmon Arm, then across the Colombia River at Revelstoke, across the Rogers Pass and through the Kicking Horse canyon before crossing into Alberta near Field and ending at Banff. We would go through 4000 feet of elevation gain today, Kamloops is only at 1100 feet and the Kicking Horse Pass between Alberta and BC is over 5300 feet. We were in luck with the weather today, clear and sunny.

The train set out, passing through small towns along the Thompson river. We were the first seating for breakfast today, I had the pancakes with maple syrup. The route climed gradually through Notch Hill, then down to Salmon Arm. The glacially carved fjord-like lakes around here are very popular for renting boats, from the simplest pontoon to hitech with jacuzzis and flatscreen TVs. Soon after we passed Craigellachie; site of the 'last spike' where the first trans-Canada railway was completed in 1885. The name came from Scotland; when the president of the CPR was trying to obtain funding to complete the railway, he telegraphed back a clan motto 'Stand Fast, Craigellachie!' when he was successful. The route soon crossed the Colombia River, then started climbing up and up towards the Rogers Pass. There are two tunnels here built after the original route over the mountain turned out to be too treacherous during the winter. The train still passes through several avalanche sheds; the mountainsides here are steep and avalanches occur every year. We took the higher tunnel, the Connaught, a 5 mile tunnel. This upper route allowed us to pass over the famous Stoney Creek bridge, although you can't really see it from the train itself. The train descended from here, then down through the town of Golden, crossing the Colombia River again. There had been some bear sightings along the route here; I missed it but someone had caught a blurry picture of it as it crossed the tracks behind us.

The train next headed up the Kicking Horse canyon, deep dramatic cliff walls on either side and the raging river mere yards away. The train crosses the river 7 times so there are good chances to get pictures of the whole train. The weather had clouded up a bit by now. We passed a few rafters on the river before reaching the town of Field. We were approaching the Sprial Tunnels. Originally when the railway went over the Kicking Horse pass, the grade was 4%.. twice as high as anywhere else on the line. Extra engines had to be added on to get the train cars up and over the pass. All extra weight was discarded; even the dining cars would be disconnected on either side of the pass. In the early 1900s, this was remedied by building two 'spiral' tunnels; these tunnels circle around inside Cathedral mountain, increasing the length of the rail just enough to decrease the grade to a more manageable level. At the time this was quite a feat of engineering; building the tunnels from both sides they met in the middle only inches off. Again not much to see from the train itself, though there are a few spots where you can see both the entry/exit of the lower tunnel. Just after passing through both spiral tunnels, the train crosses the Kicking Horse Pass and the Continental Divide into Alberta. We also had lost an hour; crossing into eastern BC and Alberta where clocks are on Mountain Time while Kamloops and Vancouver are on Pacific Time. The train next passed through Lake Louise, though you cannot see the lake from down below in town. The train route follows the dramatic route along the Bow River with mountain peaks on both sides. Finally the train pulled into Banff station where our train adventure came to an end.

Unlike last night, we did not get our hotel keys ahead of time. We had booked a transfer to the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel on the train at $10 each, assuming that finding a taxi at the train station might take some time with so many passengers. Most were on tours though and were already pre-booked onto the bus shuttles. We got a bit of tour through town, which seemed very neat and clean, lots of restaurants, shops and hotels. Banff gets visitors all year, we were there in late May which is just the start of the high summer season. We arrived at the Fairmont, a huge grey stone chateau-style. The Fairmont was one of the original hotels built by the CPR to attract tourists to the train. I'd seen pictures but was still impressed with the size of the place. It's located a bit out of town itself along the Bow River and just above the Bow River falls. We used the FPC checkin and found out we had been upgraded to a huge King Suite in the conference center wing. The view was stunning, over across to the main building with Tunnel Hill behind it. Like the night before, our bags were already waiting in the room, so again they must bus the luggage in from Kamloops. We went down to the German pub for dinner where we met Alan, a Kiwi who had been sitting behind us on the train. The hotel has a bit of everything, from tennis to a bowling alley. There are several restaurants here, a German pub & restaurant, fine dining, Italian and Japanese. There is also a minimart where you can buy usual supplies.

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Fairmont Banff Springs suite

May 26
Hotel: Fairmont Banff Springs
Today the plan was to pick up our rental car and explore the area around Banff. We had arranged a one-way rental from Avis to drop off in Calgary the following Saturday. That ended up being pretty pricy; a one-way rental that was 1 day too short to be counted as a weekly; also picking up from a neighborhood Avis station. Nome of the coupons/AWD I tried really brought the price down any! There was also the issue of parking; the Fairmonts in Banff and Lake Louise charge ~$30-$35 per night for parking! Luckily I had read on Flyertalk just before leaving that there were places to park nearby for free. In Banff you can park along the road leading away from the hotel. In Lake Louise there is a public parking lot a few minutes walk away from the hotel.

We caught the bus into town; route 4 runs from the Fairmont hotel every 20 minutes or so and is $2. We had to do laundry today as well, we had found a coin-op laundry right next to Avis. The book had also mentioned Melissa's as the place to go for breakfast; this was also nearby (well, everything is close in Banff). So in 10 minutes we had already dropped off our laundry, gotten car keys and were sitting down for breakfast. I had the huge Swiss apple pancake; delicious covered in cinnamon with tart apple chunks inside. Our waitress also gave us lots of good info about things to do and see in the area. After breakfast we headed to the Banff Tourist Information center to purchase our Park pass. Banff is in the Banff National Park and you officially need the park pass, we bought ours for 4 days and it is good at any Canadian national park. For a few $$ more we could have bought one valid for a whole year! We went to the Safeway to pickup some sandwiches and snacks for lunch, then drove out to the Banff gondola. The gondola station is up past the Rimrock hotel and near the Hotsprings. For $28 the gondola whips you up over 2000 ft to the top of Sulphur mountain, with gorgeous views all around. You can also hike up but we noticed the trail was still covered in deep snow in some places. The top gondola station is situated on a ridge with sharp dropoffs on either side. There is a trail and walkway across to another mountain peak; we decided not to go over there after seeing the tourbus-load of people heading back to get on the gondola; we managed to get in ahead of them line for the ride back down.

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Banff Gondola

After the gondola, we drove over to Lake Minnewanka and Johnson Lake. Along the lakes we came across a herd of bighorn sheep just grazing along the side of the road. I guess they're alot more used to people here. At Johnson Lake we had a picnic lunch then spent an hour or so on an easy walk around the lake. Nothing spectacular, but peaceful and quiet. After here we headed to the Hoodoos on Tunnel Mountain road. Hoodoos are formed from uneven erosion; they often look like fairy castles or mushrooms (Cappadocia in Turkey is an example). The ones here were pretty small in comparison though. We came around to Surprise Corner, which offers a stunning view across the valley to the Banff Springs hotel. We were back just in time to pick up our laundry; then headed to dinner at the Bison Restaurant.

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Bighorn Sheep, Lake Minnewanka

May 27
Hotel: Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
Today we were planning to head up to Lake Louise for two nights. We ran into Alan again at checkout, he was heading up to Lake Louise today as well on his tour. The concierge at the Fairmont had provided us with great prepared trip itineraries, they had called out all the sites by km along the way. We planned to head up the Bow Valley Parkway (1A), which runs up east of the Trans-Canada highway. There are a few places to stop along the way, one of them Johnson canyon has a trail up to some waterfalls. We got to the waterfall turnoff around 9:30AM; the walk up is about 3kms and took two hours. Some of the path was on catwalks hanging out over the canyon below. Most of the canyon was still in deep shadow and had lots of snow on the southern side. The waterfalls were pretty nice. The lower one had hollowed out a grotto in the rock; there is a side trail down where you can view the water from inside the grotto. We returned to the parking lot at 11:30; by now it was nearly full of RVs and other hikers.

Checkin at the Fairmont wasn't until 3:00 so we decided to head over to Yoho park and Emerald Lake which was back across the Kicking Horse pass in British Colombia. The drive over was alot quicker than I expected.. the train had taken a few hrs but only took us about 30 minutes from Lake Louise village. We stopped at the natural bridge carved by the Kicking Horse river, then over to Emerald Lake. The lake lived up to its name which was a gorgeous blue color. Yoho Park is home of the Burgess Shale, a treasure trove of 500-million year old bizzare fossils; I'd heard the name before but hadn't realized it was here. We had lunch at the lodge here on the lake, then back over to Lake Louise where it was time to checkin. This time we were upgraded from a Lakeview Deluxe to a huge Lakeview Jr. Suite. We opened the windows to get a view of the lake, only to find out it was still frozen! They say the lake doesn't thaw until the first week in June, then still takes another month or so to turn the gorgeous blue color seen in most photos. We were just in time to catch the afternoon tea in the lounge overlooking the lake. At $39 each it was overpriced.. it came with champagne, teapot, and usual finger sandwiches, scones, and pastries. Overall we didn't think it was very good, at least not for the price. The view was gorgeous, but the huge windows and the blazing sun meant it was boiling hot inside even though it was still quite chilly outdoors.

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Emerald Lake, Yoho Park

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Afternoon tea

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Junior Suite, Chateau Lake Louise
cont..

Really enjoying your report as this is something I want to do one day. ^

I love that part of the world and have fond memories of a camping tour I did 10 years ago through the Canadian Rockies. White water rafting on the Kicking Horse was a hoot!

My wife and I did this trip a few years ago. It was great - thanks for the memories!

May 28
Hotel: Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
Out plan for today was to drive up the Icefields Parkway to the Colombia Icefield. We got an early start and woke up at 6:30 as we wanted to beat the tourbuses to the Icefield center; we've heard its best to get there before 10AM when the tourbuses start arriving. As it was there were 15 tourbuses at the hotel yesterday! Breakfast buffet at the hotel was pricey and we ended up buying croissants/sandwiches/etc at the little deli in the hotel. We were on the road by 7:40 after stopping for gas. The Icefields Parkway (Hwy 93) runs for 235km from Lake Louise up to Jasper through some of the most gorgeous mountain scenery you will ever see. The road follows a huge glacial U-shaped valley between towering mountain peaks, most were still topped with snow and glaciers. The whole area is encompassed by the Banff and Jasper national parks. We had gotten another route itinerary from the Fairmont in Banff for this section as well, it called out various sights along the way with their km marker. We were in a hurry to reach the Icefields center though so planned to drive up there really fast then take it more leisurely along the way back. It was still very early so we were the only ones on the road. We did make a stop at the Bow Pass/Peyto lake overlook. We pulled into the lower parking lot, where snow had been pushed up 6' or more by snowplows. The main trail up to the overlook was 'closed', but they said to use the spring trail; which apparently followed the route up to the upper parking lot but this had not been plowed. The trail was a slippy, icy trough through the snow. We tried walking up a bit, but it was too icy. When I tried walking on the snow next to the trail; I fell through nearly up to my waist! We gave up after 5 minutes and decided to save this bit for later. We passed several campgrounds and picnic spots, most were still closed. Several lakes we passed by were also still frozen like Lake Louise.

Finally arrived at the Icefields Centre around 9:40. The Centre is just about halfway between Lake Louise and Jasper. Luckily no tourbuses yet in sight! We were just in time for the next snocoach departure at 10AM. The snocoaches are specially built 6WD buses that go out onto the Athabasca glacier. We lucked out again, it was gorgeously clear and sunny day. Apparently the weather had been really crappy the previous few days, it had even snowed the day before! There was one tourgroup that had arrived by then, a busload of young Aussies on a Contiki tour. The glacier has retreated quite abit since the 1800s, the terminal moraine from that period is right behind the parking lot. We all boarded a regular bus which drove us up halfway along the lateral moraine then to the staging area where we all boarded the snocoach. You could tell this place must get busy as there were 8 other snocoaches sitting there. There was an old snocoach here that had been used up until the 1980s.. basically it a 1950's bus that had been converted to have tank tracks underneath. The glacier does grow during the winter but then melts further during the summer so it is a losing battle. The glacier is spawned by the huge Colombia Icefield, which is 120 square miles and feeds other several glaciers. The whole area receives about 25 feet of snow a year. The snocoaches drive out onto the glacier to a graded area where you can get out and walk around for 30 minutes or so. The Aussies all hopped out and started throwing snowballs at each other. I have been on glaciers before in New Zealand (Franz Josef) but this is the first time I had driven onto one.

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Retro snocoach, Colombia Icefields

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Along the Icefields Parkway

After we arrived back at the Centre we headed off again to the north. We weren't planning on driving all the way to Jasper, just up to the next major sight, some waterfalls. After that we turned around and retraced our steps back towards Lake Louise. We stopped at Mistaya Canyon for lunch; this is a short walk off the highway where the river has carved a bunch of twisty passages and potholes through the shale rock; from the bridge above the river looking down it's hard to see the bottom. Several other people had the same idea and were sitting down on the rocks eating sandwiches. A great spot! We stopped at a few other places along the way back before arriving back at the Peyto lake overlook. We decided to give the trail one more try.. it was quite hard going all the way to the top but the sun had melted some of the ice so at least we had better footing. Scrambling up to the overlook, only to find out the lake was still frozen as well. Normally this lake is the gorgeous turquoise blue only glacier meltwaters have. But the vista was still worthwhile, the valley drops out below you here. We headed back down the normal trail to the parking lot which actually ended up being easier!

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Peyto Lake overlook, hard slog up but worth it!

We still had some energy after arriving back at the hotel and decided to drive over to Moraine Lake, the road had just opened a few days before. The road is closed in the winter and used as a ski trail. The drive along was nice, and we arrive at the lake only to find it frozen and very low. I guess August is the best time to come here if you want to see the lakes in their full glory! We walked out onto what is normally the lake bottom before heading back to the hotel for dinner.

May 29
Hotel: Fairmont Palliser Calgary
Our last full day in the Rockies. We didn't really have any plans for the day but we had to be in Calgary tonight as my wife was flying back home early tomorrow. We were looking at things to do/see along the way to Calgary, or near Calgary. I had noticed the Dinosaur Park and the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller on our maps, that sounded like a neat detour.. although it was clear on the opposite side of Calgary from the mountains. We also thought about driving around Kananaskis Country a bit. We showed up at the breakfast buffet at the hotel right at 8 which is a bad idea as all the tour groups are arriving then for breakfast; better to come before 8 or after 9. We checked out of the hotel and headed off down the Trans-Canada Highway. Much quicker to Banff this way but definitely less scenic than the 1A we had taken a few days before. We noticed the bridges and culverts that had been built for animals to get across the road; I had seen these before in Alaska. They are still in the process of building them here.

We stopped in Canmore for gas and to pickup some maps of the area. There was a loop route through Kananaskis country that would take a few hours to drive; we decided not to do the full loop route and only drive down as far as the village. We were leaving the mountains behind, the speed limit here went up to 110km from 90. Reaching the turnoff to Kananaskis Country (Hwy 40) we headed south. Soon after we saw a dark blob by the side of the road, a bear! We pulled off the road some distance away but it had already seen us and bounded off into the trees. A short distance later we saw another bear, a mama and her two cubs.. Four bears in just a few minutes! They also ran off into the trees so we weren't able to get a good picture here.

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Saying goodbye to the Rockies

We reached the Delta Lodge at Kananaskis village around noon; this is a big ski area in the winter apparently. We grabbed some sandwiches for lunch then headed back up Hwy40 back to Hwy 1 then east. The mountains were behind us now as the view changed from snowy peaks to treeless rolling prairie. We decided to skip driving through Calgary itself and took a detour via Cochrane and Airdrie on the way over to Drumheller. The surrounding area is all very sparsely populated; all farms and dead straight roads in all cardinal directions. Pretty uneventful until we reached Airdrie; which was a huge community of brand new 'pod people' houses as I like to call them. I guess it's only a few minutes north of Calgary proper and has become a new suburb. We continued on towards Drumheller, stopping at Horseshoe Canyon about 2:30. Quite impressive! The area around Drumheller is all amazing badlands, carved out of the surrounding prairie. The area is also a huge source of dinosaur fossils; Drumheller is known as the dinosaur capital and they take advantage of that.. there is dino-schlock everywhere in town. The worlds largest dinosaur is here, a 60-foot tall T-rex statue. You can climb up inside its mouth and look out over town! We decided to pass on that though and headed straight for the Royal Tyrell Museum, just outside of town. This turned out to be quite a gem, a great museum with hundreds of fossils of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. It's also an active museum, you can see the technicians working on cleaning fossils. Highly recommended place to visit!

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Drive to Drumheller... lots of nothing

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Worlds Largest dinosaur, Drumheller

After the museum, we headed east of town to the Hoodoos; the ones here turned out to be much more impressive than those near Banff.. there were several here looking like huge rock mushrooms. Quite blazing hot here too in late afternoon.. this part of Alberta is very dry. Finally we set off for the long drive back to Calgary.. which took about 2 hrs of straight, boring driving. Arriving in Calgary we headed straight for the Palliser hotel. This was an older hotel with a grand lobby but older rooms. We had been upgraded yet again to a Jr. Suite; a huge room but the bathroom was tiny in contrast. I went to go find a place to park; it being Friday evening (8PM) I hoped to find an open parking spot. It took awhile as many of the roads around the Palliser were blocked or closed due to construction, I had to drive in circles or 4-5 blocks out of my way to get to the next street. I finally found a spot only a block away from the hotel. This was the last night of our trip; tomorrow my wife was heading back home and I would take the bus up to Edmonton for the developer meeting. We didn't really get to see any of Calgary though.

Our driving route (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=lake+louise,+ab&daddr=50.924246,-115.128479+to:Range+Rd+42+to:Symons+Valley+Rd+to:H WY+10%2FHWY+56+to:HWY+56+to:Calgary,+AB,+Canada&geocode=%3B%3BFUkQDgMdQmAt-Q%3BFfSjDgMdxPcx-Q%3BFaINEQMdiJBI-Q%3BFePxCgMdjkBJ-Q%3B&hl=en&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=11&via=1,2,3,4,5&sll=50.926843,-114.925919&sspn=0.302527,0.699005&ie=UTF8&ll=51.070311,-115.019302&spn=2.412824,5.592041&z=8)

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Hoodoos nr Drumheller

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Fairmont Palliser Jr. Suite

Overall we really enjoyed our trip, quite a few unique experiences! We really liked the Fairmonts, especially with the FAF rates ;). There was great service at all the hotels we stayed at and all the rooms were very nicely furnished and had comfortable beds. Also a good thing we had unlimited miles, we drove nearly 2000 kms in 4 days!